Act 22:Ashes to Ashes...
by The Admiral
Summary: My longest episode so far! R/D fans, rejoice!!
1. Default Chapter

No, I do not own any characters or Big O itself, and no, I am not making any money off of this.  
  
  
  
Act 22: Ashes to Ashes...  
  
  
Roger Smith was pretty sure he was hallucinating. It was a cloudless day, and yet the blue sky nearest the horizon was marred by white. It was too far yet to tell, but he was fairly sure it was growing closer. "Angel, is that--"  
  
"You guessed it. Home sweet home. Though we're still hours away. I'll call ahead and get someone to meet us at the city's edge."  
  
Dorothy entered Big O's cockpit. She attempted a smile, but when that didn't come out quite right, she looked through the viewport at what was mesmerizing Roger. "Is that our destination?"  
  
"According to Angel, it is. We're still to far to see it clearly, though..."  
  
Dorothy decided not to tell him that her eyes could pick out individual buildings already.  
  
  
Four hours later, only one word could describe Roger Smith.  
  
Impressed.  
  
The entire city, as near as he could tell, was composed of tall towers, every one of them ivory white. Some were decorated on the exterior by ornate spiral patterns, some with crosshatch designs. And, on any one building, there were uncountable balconies, not tiny, wall-hugging balconies, but huge, wide, slabs of concrete--were they concrete?--that stretched away from the wall. One other thing had Roger slightly puzzled: there appeared to be no roads. All the ivory towers were close enough together that there was not room for a proper traffic pattern between them.  
  
"I'm surprised. Roger Smith, the great Negotiator, is at a loss for words." Angel smirked. "I thought I'd never see the day."  
  
Roger glared at Big Duo over his shoulder, then returned his gaze to the spectacle before him. "Where are those people who were going to meet us?"  
  
"They should be here any moment...there they are!"  
  
Roger looked out the viewport, trying to find the people on the ground, but Dorothy pointed straight ahead. Roger, for the first time dizzy from his height, looked up. He could see three blurs, flying, level with Big O's cockpit. But they got blurrier as they grew closer. He barely had time to realize what was happening when he blacked out. The last thing he saw was a huge human figure with wings standing over him, surrounded in a halo of light. 


	2. Part Two

No, I do not own any characters or Big O itself, and no, I am not making any money off of this.  
  
  
  
When Roger came to, the first person he could recognize was Dorothy, leaning over his bed. He reached up an arm, and she took his hand. He smiled, but weakly. It was a frightening thing; he had never felt this weak before.  
  
"Ah, feeling better, are we?" The jovial voice came from a tall man with golden hair, dressed in a long, white, flowing robe. "You've been out for three hours. How do you feel?"  
  
"Like I just fell out of Big O's cockpit. Where-" Roger began to sit up, but a sharp pain in his chest put an end to that. He groaned, and lay back down.  
  
"Stay still, Mr. Smith. You've been bleeding internally ever since that Megadeuce and you fell underground. Your butler did an incredible job of putting you back together, but he couldn't help this without full medical facilities." The man grinned. "From what I've heard of your exploits, you haven't had access to those for some time."  
  
Roger chuckled, but it became a cough. He thought he tasted blood. "What can you do?"  
  
The man's merry face fell, and his tone took on an aspect of utter seriousness. "Mr. Smith, we cannot heal the injury in your present state, and we cannot stop the bleeding. In a few days, you will die."  
  
Dorothy suddenly fell forward, her arms encirling Roger. "You can't leave me, now that I just got you back...you can't do this to me, you louse!"  
  
Roger winced, but reached an arm around her anyway. "I know, Dorothy. Are you sure there's nothing you can do?" he asked of the tall man.  
  
"Now I didn't say that. We've worked out a method that will allow you to keep on going long after your body fails you."  
  
Dorothy, despair etched on her face, sat up, and turned hope-filled eyes to the man. "What do you mean?"  
  
"It's a process called TMD, or Total Mental Download. It copies your conciousness, your subconcious, all your memories, every last thought in your head, into a computer or other such device." He gave Dorothy a thoughtfull look. "Including androids."  
  
"You mean-" Dorothy sat straight, still clutching Roger's hand.  
  
"Yes. He would be exactly like you, but with every memory, thought, and basically everything that makes him Roger Smith hard-wired into a computer board. There is, unfortunately, a catch. The process takes a few days, and only the most disciplined and capable mind survives it."  
  
Roger swallowed, and nodded. "I'm willing to take that risk."  
  
The man smiled. "I thought you would. I'll call in the team immediately."  
  
Roger relaxed as the man moved to the door. Then partially sat up again. "By the way, I didn't catch your name."  
  
The blonde man, his hand on the doorknob, turned and smiled. "Call me David." 


	3. Part Three

No, I do not own any characters or Big O itself, and no, I am not making any money off of this.  
  
  
  
Norman came into Roger's room a day later. After thouroughly examining both Dorothy and Instro, the technicians had managed to construct an android replica of Roger. It was an exact duplicate, down to the finest detail. The as-yet blank shell lay on a stretcher next to Roger's bed. Roger himself was unconcious, a strange sort of device wrapped around his head. Dorothy sat, ever vigilant, by his side.  
  
"How is he coming?"  
  
Dorothy blinked and looked up at Norman, then checked a display on the cart-load of equipment that connected man and machine. "It has been ten hours, now, and the transfer is at fifteen percent."  
  
Norman crossed to Roger's side, and grasped one of the Negotiator's hands in his own. "Stay firm, Master Roger. I know you did not fight your way back to the surface, and back to Dorothy, merely to die like this. Do not let us down." Norman pulled up a chair and sat opposite from Dorothy. "We are watching over you."  
  
  
Angel came in on the morning of the second day. Norman was asleep on a cot against the wall. Dorothy sat next to Roger as always, her eyes focused on some point in the distance. "Is he doing alright?"  
  
Dorothy shifted only her gaze to Angel. "It has been 22 hours, and only forty percent complete." The android girl turned to look at her love, stricken on the bed. "I am concerned that he will not live long enough to complete the transfer."  
  
Angel heard the words, pure android, but something in them gave away the pain Dorothy must be feeling. "I'll go talk to David, perhaps he knows some way to help."  
  
  
David came into the room only ten minutes later, obviously distressed. "Only forty percent, you say?"  
  
Dorothy simply nodded. "I am fearfull he will not live long enough."  
  
"At this rate, he won't." David moved over to check the displays. "It's as I feared. His organic body is failing, and much more rapidly than we thought. If we don't transfer everything that's left to another location, we could lose him." He ran a hand through his hair. "But this system isn't capable of taking that much data at once. Even if we could move everything that remains that fast, I'd be worried about damaging some of the coding. The problem is not how fast we can move the information. We need to encode it so the cybernetic body can understand what it's recieving. If we had another system to help, we could do it in time, but this isn't rigged up for multiple stages..."  
  
Dorothy sprang to her feet. "Let me. I can process data faster than any normal computer." She looked down at Roger's inert form. "Use me as both buffer and encoder."  
  
David's eyes widened. "Of course, a thinking mind would be much better...but there's the possibility that parts of his psyche might get copied into yours during the transfer. We couldn't be sure it'd all go through, or that we could erase what might have been left behind."  
  
"If he was willing to risk this operation in the first place, then I am willing to risk myself in finishing it." Dorothy spoke with adamant behind her voice.  
  
"Alright. Nurse! Bring in another bed! And get me some extra wiring!" 


	4. Part Four

No, I do not own any characters or Big O itself, and no, I am not making any money off of this.  
  
  
  
Norman now stood guardian over two inert forms, Roger in his bed, and Dorothy on the reinforced cot next to him. The wires now ran not from Roger to the machine to the android body, but from Roger to Dorothy. Her reader disk slot was open, and a mass of cables had been connected into the opening. It had been 32 hours total since the start of the procedure, and neither of the pair showed any signs of waking. Norman moved a chair between the two beds and sat.  
  
"Any signs of them coming out?" Angel's head peeked around the doorway.  
  
Norman shook his head. "No. Master David did say that even with Dorothy's speed, the transfer would take some considerable time--"  
  
"Ugh...Where am I...oh." Roger was sitting up. Not the organic Roger, who had been brought in on a stretcher, hanging on the last thread of his life, but the android Roger, with a micro-proccessor brain, silicone skin, and titanium bones. "Did it work?"  
  
"Apparently so." Angel came fully into the room and crossed to the medistand next to the organic body. All the readings had flatlined. "And just in time, too."  
  
"I don't feel any diff--Dorothy!" Roger had noticed her lying on the cot next to him, and immediately slid off his own. "What happened to her? Is she alright?"  
  
"She is merely reccuperating, and re-organizing her internal data, I expect." David entered the room. "Can you access any of your operating systems?"  
  
Roger stood straight, and his eyes unfocused. "Download complete. Motivational systems online. Optimizing data." These last words came in a monotone, pure android. He shook his head, and spoke normally again. "Weird. But what's wrong with Dorothy?"  
  
David moved over to her side and began disconnecting the cables attached to her reader port. "You would not have completed the transfer alone. She linked up with you, and sped up the process much more than I anticipated." He looked Roger in the eye. "You would not be alive now if not for her."  
  
Roger beant over Dorothy, clasping her hand in his. "Awaken, my love. The task is done, you may rise." He stroked her hair, gently.  
  
"Roger Smith, I had no idea you could be so poetic." Angel grinned at him. "Try the classic method of waking a sleeping beauty."  
  
Roger smiled. "Always works in fairy tales." He leaned forward and met his lips with hers. For a moment, there was no reaction. Then one of her arms snaked behind his neck to pull him closer, and he felt her returning the kiss, passionately. When he backed up for a moment, Dorothy smiled at him. A real smile, not the attempts she had been making earlier.  
  
"I knew...it would work..." She reached up and pulled him down for another kiss. They parted again, and Roger helped her to sit up. "I feel...somehow...different."  
  
David looked at a display. "You are. While you were sifting through Roger's head, you copied a tiny part of it into yourself. From this recent display, I'd say it was his human ability to express emotions."  
  
"But wait--I thought that androids weren't supposed to have emotions." Angel looked puzzled.  
  
Roger grinned at her. "Well, I know two androids in this very room who most certainly do." He started to say more, but Dorothy reached around and pulled him to her lips yet again. 


	5. Part Five-long, isn't it?

No, I do not own any characters or Big O itself, and no, I am not making any money off of this.  
  
  
  
"Well, all seems to be in order. Roger's mind is fully and successfully engraved in the android body. It'd take an electro-magnetic pulse the likes of which I've never seen to get him out of there." David stepped back from the couple, who had not left each other's sides since they had awoken. "Now, I have some buisness to attend to. I suggest you get to know these new surroundings. Oh by the way, Roger, Angel had us make sure both you and Miss Dorothy were well equiped in the 'sensual' areas. She said to consider it her engagement present."  
  
He smiled at the stunned and slightly embarrased androids, then threw open the doors to the balcony. Stepping out onto it, he unfurled the great, white-feathered wings that had up to this point been wrapped around him like a robe, and, taking a running start, leapt off the balcony's edge. He came back to their level a moment later, soaring off through the maze of ivory towers. Roger's jaw was agape.  
  
Dorothy looked at him with amusement. "I forgot you were unconcious for that part. Apparently, David, Angel, and all the people here are a seperate race, created before the Event by powerfull sciences. Not only do they have the wings, for aesthetic and mobility purposes, but their senses are much keener then the average human, they live longer, and are immune to most diseases. No wonder this is called the City of Angels."  
  
Roger was still somewhat shocked by this relevation. "So that's where those scars on Angel's shoulders came from." He grinned. "And her insistence on what name to call her by."  
  
Dorothy nodded. "She had the wings surgically removed before coming to Paradigm, and took pills to keep them from growing back. They're already starting to sprout again."  
  
Roger stepped forward and closed the balcony doors, then drew the curtains. "Enough talking about them. I think you and I have some surroundings to 'explore.'"  
  
Dorothy let out a very un-android-like giggle as he took her in his arms. They kissed, a far deeper, more passionate kiss than anything until now. She wrapped her own arms around him, and they slowly made their way to the bed.  
  
Angel turned off the security camera as her conscience got the better of her. 


End file.
